food

Happy Thanksgiving Leftovers Day! If you, like me, spent the morning deciding between pie and mashed potatoes for breakfast, you might need some songs about food to provide a soundtrack to your day. Here are two past BitchTapes, republished with your gustatory needs in mind. Betcha can't eat listen to just one! Who's Hungry? Part I



Track list and Who's Hungry? Part II after the jump!

In the U.S., food marketing and consumption is highly gendered. In the funny pages, Cathy gobbles down chocolate and Dagwood constructs towering, meaty sandwiches. On the Internet, the Women Laughing Alone With Salad is an exemplary (and hilarious) meme. Guy vegans seemed like such a quaint anomaly that a Boston Globe reporter tried to make "hegan" happen in 2010. I say "in the U.S." because the nation apparently has an extreme case of food gendering, thanks to our robust and omnipresent advertising industry and a steady, though not necessarily high-quality or healthy, food supply. In a Salon article exploring gendered representations and connotations of food, Riddhi Shah writes "In the U.S., instead, it was an extension of one’s identity, a phenomenon made possible by the United States’ unique history of unrivaled luxury." Put another way: you are what you eat.

Oprah has made clear throughout this season that because it’s the last, she only wants to cover topics and guests of real significance to her—I applaud her for using her platform to raise awareness about the benefits of a vegan diet. That being said, this episode was a real mixed bag.

No matter what you celebrate this time of year, chances are you're going to need to buy a gift for someone, and that's where our "Bitch in a Box" series comes in! Between now and the end of December, we (Bitch HQ staff and interns) will be taking turns writing themed gift guides designed to please even the scroogiest feminists on your shopping list. Here's my guide to edible gifting—be sure to add your own suggestions in the comments!

No matter what you celebrate this time of year, chances are you're going to need to buy a gift for someone, and that's where our "Bitch in a Box" series comes in! Between now and the end of the month, Bitch HQ staff and interns will be taking turns writing themed gift guides designed to please even the scroogiest feminists on your shopping list. Below, my picks for the book lovers in your life, all of which are as lovely to look at as they are to read.

As if being a completely fictional model of unobtainable feminine domesticity weren't enough, Betty Crocker has sealed her fate as a Douchebag Decree recipient with the new PMS SOS iPhone app. Ladies, are you PMS-ing? Betty Crocker can help. By giving you coupons for brownies and tips for "crafting an apology." Oh, and there's a version for guys too!

Food is awesome, so it's no surprise that there are some awesome jams about food out there. This installment of BitchTapes is dedicated to those jams, and the songs are organized in menu order for your dining convenience. I chose these particular songs because each one is about a different kind of food, and combined they make for a pretty satisfying day of eating. Bon appetit!

The New York Times Magazine (I know, my fave) has a piece on celebrity chef Katie Lee today, and former Times food critic Frank Bruni details her rise to celeb chef fame. The article also describes how Lee supposedly traded culinary school to be married to Billy Joel, but to assume that the connections made were not perhaps more invaluable is disingenuous. Perhaps this wasn’t what Bruni meant to imply, but I do get weary of the "she gave up her dreams for her other dream—a man" narrative.

Having spent the weekend filling my freezer with late summer goodness from my local farmer's market and finding out about Lisa Jervis’s new book Cook Food: A Manualfesto for Easy, Healthy, Local Eating, the Grrrl on Film has nourishment on her mind.

And I’m not the only one, the recent release of Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia has placed Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking back on best seller lists. And last weekend marked the kickoff of Canning Across America – an event organized by a nationwide ad hoc collective of cooks, gardeners and food lovers committed to promoting safe food preservation and the joys of community building through food with how-to classes, demos and home canning parties in cities around the country.

As a result, I’ve been thinking about women and food in film and have come up with a short list of women preparing and/or enjoying food on screen. Some of these I’ve seen, and some I haven’t, but here’s a delicious sampling to whet your appetites!

A call for opinion and sharing from those who live vegan lifestyles.